Powerful product but support needs an overhaul
October 18, 2018
Powerful product but support needs an overhaul
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech)
We use Automate as one of our tools to provide Managed Services to our client base. It is used for patch management, system monitoring and alerting, remote control, scripting and asset management. We install Automate on all managed servers and workstations.
- Scripting in Automate is very comprehensive and flexible. Other tools we've used pale in comparison to the scripting in Automate.
- Remote control is 2nd to none. Screen Connect has proven to be incredibly fast and stable. This is a significant improvement over the old LabVNC in previous versions of Automate
- The ability to group things manually and dynamically. Being able to automatically add systems to groups based on some criteria (almost anything) and then run scripts or commands against those groups is a huge benefit. A great example is adding machines to a group based on anti-virus install. If a machine doesn't have AV installed it gets added to a group. The group is setup to run a script at some frequency to install AV.
- The biggest issue for Automate is their support. They seem to be completely overwhelmed. Chat support for simple questions can be anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes in the queue. Then when you are connected they are doing little more than creating a ticket that will take days to hear back from them.
- Patching. The documentation and advice from our implementation person do not match reality. The process of denying a patch is documented, but doesn't work. We were unable to block certain patches from being distributed until we spoke to a specialist about it. He couldn't explain the mis-matched documentation.
- Speed. Using the Automate client is painfully slow. Very sluggish and non-responsive at times.
- In many ways Automate has sped up our ability to service end users. The remote control allows multiple techs to concurrently remote to a device allowing techs to assist each other.
- We have been able to utilize the scripting to do more than our previous RMM. For instance, we can deploy and monitor Bitlocker encryption ensuring that our clients with compliance requirements have the required evidence.
- Dataviews in Automate allow us to access/filter/sort data very quickly with the need to use reporting tools.
- Support has a negative impact on our team. Support takes far too long and we seem to deal with more issues than what we think is acceptable. At times we wonder if anyone else actually uses some of the features in the product because we seem to be the first to find the problems.
The Continuum RMM is very simplistic in comparison to Automate. The scripting engine in Continuum doesn't compare at all with the scripting in Automate. Continuum has a single level of agent grouping (all agents for a client are in a single group). For clients that have 100's of endpoints across many locations this gets messy. In Automate, you can create 'sites' under each client and move systems into them to not only organize, but to allow running of scripts on those groups.
Unlike Continuum, Automate allows you to dynamically add systems to groups. Each group can be configured to run certain scripts, perform tasks or monitor for something specific. An example would be servers with SQL server. You could add these to a group based on SQL being installed and then monitor for specific SQL related events.
The remote control in Automate has proven to be much faster and more reliable than LogMeIn that is used in Continuum.
Unlike Continuum, Automate allows you to dynamically add systems to groups. Each group can be configured to run certain scripts, perform tasks or monitor for something specific. An example would be servers with SQL server. You could add these to a group based on SQL being installed and then monitor for specific SQL related events.
The remote control in Automate has proven to be much faster and more reliable than LogMeIn that is used in Continuum.
ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech) Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Support cares about my success | Slow Resolution Poor followup Less knowledgeable Problems left unsolved Escalation required |
Yes - Not at all
Integrating ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech)
- Warranty Master
- Webroot
- StorageCraft
For ConnectWise Manage we have Client, Ticket and Configuration sync between systems. Not difficult to setup, but difficult to get accurate results. Configuration sync has broken completely one time due to some unknown change after an update. Currently about 5% of our workstation configurations are not syncing correctly.
Warranty Master - Integration of Warrant Master to update purchase and warranty expiration dates was about the easiest integration we have ever done. The integration was fully setup and working in under 5 minutes.
Webroot and StorageCraft integration was very simple and straight-forward.
Warranty Master - Integration of Warrant Master to update purchase and warranty expiration dates was about the easiest integration we have ever done. The integration was fully setup and working in under 5 minutes.
Webroot and StorageCraft integration was very simple and straight-forward.
- None at this time
Know exactly what you want as a result and ensure your implementation person gets it right especially for a complex integration like Automate to Manage.